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Meet Jennifer Lourie Tapp of Jennifer Lourie Photography

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Lourie Tapp.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
With a love for exploring the world, I ended up in Ventura, Ca studying photojournalism and documentary filmmaking, focusing primarily on nature, architecture, and travel. I finished my degree and promptly left Southern California – only to return several weeks later to begin working for Getty Images. During that time, I found an unexpected love of wedding photography. I was surprised at this new passion, as I had always envisioned wedding photography as the cookie cutter, posed photos shown in your grandparent’s albums. To say that I was surprised at the elegance and beauty of the wedding world would be an understatement. Being trusted to not only capture someone’s special day but to capture it in a way that the couple would want to remember is now a gift I treasure immensely.

I always knew that I wanted to continue to travel and I definitely worked harder to create my business knowing that someday, I would be able to make my own schedule to allow that. Nowadays, I’m capturing beautiful weddings across the country on weekends and red carpet events in the middle of the week. Every year, I make a point to visit a new country and photograph this beautiful world that we live in – like I did, when I started.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Working anywhere in the photo industry is a crazy and challenging experience. It is not a career path that I think anyone anywhere could deem as easy. 5% of a photographer’s time is spent actually taking pictures of things we love, and the rest is finding ways to continue building the business and gaining new clients. From editing to marketing, to networking, to website design, to social media; you end up wearing a lot of hats.

I think one of the biggest challenges that I personally face, and I’m sure others in this industry can agree with, is remembering to not lose yourself trying to make a dime. You start with a hobby and by the end of it, the hobby is your business. Every day is spent either getting better or pursuing the next best thing and it gets very difficult to separate between your business life and personal life.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
I am a photographer that has a passion for meeting people and seeing new places. On one day of the week, I am a film shooting, fine-art traveling documentarian wedding photographer, capturing my couples tie the knot, adopt puppies, and have babies. I am based currently in California, but spend half of my year with couples in Chicago, and am currently expanding towards Colorado where my family just relocated. I aim to capture emotions and not just moments; hopefully freezing not just where they were at that time, but exactly how they felt. I am incredibly proud of the relationships that I have gotten to build with my couples; not only getting to travel around the world with them but seeing the next adventures in their lives.

On another side I work with the Getty Images editorial team photographing events around the country; from red carpets to concerts and everything in between. I don’t think I’ll ever get over how bizarre it is to see that Time or Vanity Fair decided to use one of my photos for something or to fly to Hawaii to capture an event. I love how different event and entertainment photography can be. At the beginning of the day, you never know who or what you might be capturing.

I know how lucky I am to have had the opportunities to experience so many different types of photography and see so many different walks of life. I feel that at the end of the day my work has grown and continues to grow because of my diverse experience in this field. I believe that this sets me apart from many peers in this industry, because not only do I never want to stop growing, but I never want to stop seeing the world with fresh eyes.

What were you like growing up?
I grew up in a small town called Placerville, California, known for being home to the gold rush, apple orchards, the American river, and more trees than you can count. While I loved every moment, I also knew that there was so much more to this world than my little slice of home. I can thank my mother for that. Between hauling my brother and I around the country one blisteringly hot summer to see the sites, to a road trip to South Dakota to pay our respects to Mount Rushmore; or even the trip to Hawaii for the holidays; my mom definitely wanted us to know that the world was so much bigger than our small town. Raising us with independence, a lot of adventure and a passion for the world; I can’t imagine, I would be on my own journey right now without her encouragement.

I can’t even be sure when I picked up my first camera, but I remember taking pictures of everything in my younger years. I can still see the groaning faces of my classmates when I pulled out the camera; although it did help their resistance when I ended up becoming yearbook editor. In high school, I went to Australia on a student ambassador program and I can remember that with every click, I was so enamored with the thought of sharing what I was seeing with everyone back home. This love of storytelling pushed me into an early morning photography course my senior year. I’m not sure if the love of cameras or the love of travel came first, but it was a beautiful relationship that built the foundation for my life today.

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Image Credit:
© Jennifer Lourie Photography

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